Breakdown of Это очевидный фейк, но доверчивые пользователи его распространяют.
это
this / it is
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
но
but
пользователь
user
Questions & Answers about Это очевидный фейк, но доверчивые пользователи его распространяют.
фейк is clearly an English loanword. Does it decline like a regular Russian noun, or is it indeclinable?
It declines perfectly like a standard masculine noun ending in a consonant, just like парк or банк. In this sentence, it is in the nominative case. If you wanted to say 'I don't see the fake,' you would use the genitive: Я не вижу фейка.
I see the root for 'belief' or 'trust' in доверчивые. How exactly is this word built?
It comes from the verb доверять (to trust). The suffix -чив- is used to form adjectives that describe a tendency or disposition to do something. So доверчивый literally means 'having a tendency to trust,' which translates nicely to 'gullible' or 'overly trusting'.
Why is the object pronoun его placed before the verb (его распространяют) instead of after it?
In Russian, unstressed object pronouns like его naturally gravitate toward the middle of the clause, usually landing right before the verb. Placing it after the verb (распространяют его) is not grammatically wrong, but putting it before the verb makes the sentence flow much more naturally in everyday speech.
Since this lesson is about evidential particles, how would adding якобы change the first half of this sentence?